FED-UP residents have been ringing in the new year – after a fault with the fire alarm.

Exasperated occupants of the Echo 24 building, in West Wear Street, said they were forced to leave their apartments to escape the din of alarms, which have been ringing intermittently since Christmas Eve.

Complaints were made to the building’s management company – but they fell on deaf ears as everyone was on holiday.

Engineers eventually went to fix the fault only for another to occur.

Bosses have now vowed to resolve the problem and bring the sound of silence to suffering residents.

Home owner Lynda Ellis, 50, said it has been “horrendous.”

Mrs Ellis lives with husband Tom, 54, daughter Anneka, 26, and son Alex, 16, added: “It has been going on and off since Christmas Eve, and it’s so loud, so many decibels,” she said. “They do test it every Thursday, so when it goes off then we expect it, but this has just been constant, every day.

“If there is a fire, as there was a year-or-so ago we wouldn’t know, and people wouldn’t leave their homes, which is dangerous.

“Tom works night shifts at the hospital and he is really tired because we haven’t been able to sleep.

“Even when we have it has been disturbed because of the noise.

“And I think disturbed sleep can be worse than none at all.

“He had a 13-hour shift today, and it could be dangerous if he is tired on the job.”

She added: “I called building management a number of times to no answer.

“Then when there was a reply, I was told they didn’t know about it as they had been on holiday.”

Heather Johnson, from Avoca Estate Management Ltd, which looks after the building, said: “We only found out about the problem after returning to work after Christmas.

“We have had numerous phone calls from residents, and sent an engineer out to the building to resolve the issue.

“They managed to repair it, then more engineers went out on Thursday and they found a different fault which was causing another alarm to go off.